This case study shows how Direct Line, an insurance provider in the UK, took inspiration from a Hollywood character to refine its brand purpose.

After experiencing several years of growth and becoming the leading service provider in the insurance market, Direct Line was now struggling to keep up with fierce competition from price comparison websites (PCW), in an increasingly commoditised market.

Looking to reboot the brand, Direct Line's new campaign positioned the brand as the Fixer character in Pulp Fiction, linking it to the quick, discreet and hassle free way the character in the classic film solved problems.

TV ad spend took centre stage in the campaign, accompanied by cinema, digital, social and media partnership initiatives that helped to widen its reach.

Over a 12 month period, car insurance sales saw a 10% increase in growth, with Direct Line Home Insurance registering a 16% increase.

2

Flipkart.com: Wish Chain

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Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2016

This case study describes how Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce platform, created an integrated eco-system to engage people emotionally with the brand.

This case study describes how Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce platform, created an integrated eco-system to engage people emotionally with the brand.

Flipkart was facing stiff competition from its rivals, Amazon and Snapdeal.

It needed to break through the noise and do something to stand out in order to reach its audience, so launched a brand platform with the theme of fulfilling the shoppers' wishes via a feature called the Wishcart.

Through the combination of TV ads, multiscreens, print, radio, out of home advertising, photographic digital content and a brand film, the retailer drew in indifferent shoppers into the brand.

As a result, the campaign helped Flipkart to become the number one brand in terms of brand perception within its market segment.

This case study describes how a brand response creative campaign delivered real commercial effect at the most commercially and emotionally competitive time of year – Christmas – for Three Ireland, a telecoms brand.

This case study describes how a brand response creative campaign delivered real commercial effect at the most commercially and emotionally competitive time of year – Christmas – for Three Ireland, a telecoms brand.

Three Ireland had purchased O2 Ireland in a deal worth 780m euros, repositioning Three to rival the market leader, Vodafone.

Three's primary objective was to 'win' Christmas in the market, and to change any negative opinions O2 customers had about the Three brand.

Three believed that a simple human insight, which showed that Three understands its customers, would cut through the other Christmas messages.

The 'Perfect Surprise' Christmas 2014 campaign featured an emotional TV ad that was supported by tactical TV stings, press, outdoor and digital display.

The campaign not only delivered on ambitious targets, but was also instrumental in changing brand perception of Three at a crucial time for the business.

This case study explains how Three, a communications brand, created awareness of its sponsorship of the Irish rugby team with the help of an integrated campaign.

In March 2015, Three completed its merger with O2, which meant that the Six Nations Championship in 2015 would be one of the earliest manifestations of how Three would 'take care' of the things that O2 customers had become accustomed to.

48% of O2 customers wanted Three to continue with the sponsorship.

The 'All It Takes Is Everything' campaign was a mix of TV, print and outdoor.

The digital campaign used time-sensitive message delivery of the creative content and match time activation helped create content for social as well as get fans involved in games.

All Three's goals were either met or exceeded, and in some cases, records were smashed.

6

O2: Proactive Re-sign

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Marketing Society UK, Excellence Awards, Winner, 2016

This case study looks at a campaign from O2, the UK telco, that won and retained customers by changing the structure of 2 year contracts, allowing customers to 'refresh' to the newest handset at any point.

This case study looks at a campaign from O2, the UK telco, that won and retained customers by changing the structure of 2 year contracts, allowing customers to 'refresh' to the newest handset at any point.

The original hypothesis was that happier customers will not leave and will eventually spend more to get the quality of service they're expecting.

How to persuade customers to re-sign? Don't; they re-sign during their contract, and take on much of the hard research work that consumers tend to do when searching for a new contract.

By presenting them with personalised offers while they are still contracted to O2, the campaign rewarded loyalty and offered the chance to satisfy their desire for a new handset without the agonising wait.

This case study shows how Pepsi, a soft drinks brand, developed a social media campaign centered on Nigerian cultural identity to regain market share.

With the carbonated soft drinks market maturing, Pepsi's sales fell as it battled both a big-spending market leader (Coca-Cola) and newly arrived challengers.

Keeping true to its origins as a youth-focused brand, the campaign linked itself to the Nigerian slang term for ambition – 'Longthroat' – to market itself as the drink of choice for ambitious youngsters.

The campaign relied on shareable content spread through social media and digital video, using influencers and celebrity endorsements, as well as outdoor, TV, POS and events.

As a result, the brand's Twitter followers grew to 40,000, overtaking Coca-Cola, and sales increased by 60%.

8

Toyota Motor Sales USA: Mas Que Un Auto - More Than A Car

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Effie Worldwide, Bronze, North America Effies, 2016

This case study details how Toyota, a Japanese automotive company, increased brand engagement with Hispanic consumers in the US with its Mas Que Un Auto campaign.

This case study details how Toyota, a Japanese automotive company, increased brand engagement with Hispanic consumers in the US with its Mas Que Un Auto campaign.

After 10 years of being number one in the Hispanic market the company was under pressures from its competitors, particularly Nissan.

Toyota realised that cars were more than just transportation, they were representative of a life achievement and were viewed as an emotional product.

It invited owners to name their cars and gave them high quality custom badges to display on their vehicles, provided they told the stories behind the names; the stories were shared and highlighted on social media and one was made into a TV commercial.

There were 95,000 badge orders, 52.6m digital impressions and Toyota increased its market share by 0.6pp.

MB was under threat from retailer own label products and was in danger of being delisted by Waitrose because it was failing to communicate a compelling brand story.

With a budget of £35,000, MB launched the 'Curiously Moreish little taste adventures' campaign and redesigned its packaging with vibrant colours, Victorian etchings, hand-painted illustrations and eccentric product descriptors to give the brand a unique voice within its category.

The redesign gave MB a new identity and clear category role that secured its position in major retailers and delivered a significant gross profit increase.

10

Virgin Media: Voice of our brand

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Design Business Association, Gold, Design Effectiveness Awards, 2016

This case study describes how Virgin Media initiated a programme of behavioural frameworks and coaching materials to deliver a branded experience with remarkable results.

This case study describes how Virgin Media initiated a programme of behavioural frameworks and coaching materials to deliver a branded experience with remarkable results.

Virgin Media was aware that good customer service elicits the highest level of praise from consumers – 63% of all positive feedback relates to staff versus only 8.4% to products.

The Voice of Our Brand programme aimed to create a framework of values and guidelines for delivering 'perfect' customer interactions that were consistent, excellent and distinctly Virgin Media experiences.

The project engaged stakeholders, staff and customers resulting in the doubling of positive comments and the halving of negative comments.

This case study explains how Fitness Garage, the Sheffield (UK) gym opened in 2014, won 'Newcomer gym of the year' and exceeded membership targets.

Opening with the aim to become a boutique offering, based on functional fitness and an emphasis on building a fitness community and ethos for every member, the challenge was the entire branding: bringing membership up from zero.

The UK gym market is competitive with public and private involvement: 13.2% of the population is registered to a gym; 6,112 facilities exist in the UK, with 177 new gyms opening in 2013-14.

Design revolved around the body as machine, and a garage to keep that machine pristine; with the tag-line 'fine tune your performance', the visual identity takes from American garages of the 50s; instructors are titled 'mechanics'.

The results saw a membership increase of 162.5%, and a retention rate of 2x the industry standard; initial fame has won associations with elite athletes, national awards and discussions for franchising and expansion.

This case study describes how the UK architectural company Purcell Miller Tritton rebranded itself as Purcell to reflect its fresh, design-led and forward-thinking work.

Purcell Miller Tritton had a strong reputation, but found itself stagnating due to a dated and inconsistent identity that no longer represented the company's ambitions.

The company had a budget of Â£88k to streamline communications, raise its profile and change the perception of it being old-fashioned.

It set out to achieve this by shortening the name and adopting a consistent, yet flexible visual language that would leave a lasting impression when combined with clear templates and a palette of colours.

Within two years of the rebrand, Purcell saw turnover increase 29.5% to Â£14.36m, opened six new offices and hired 43% more staff.

14

A donor is for life not just for Christmas: Strengthening donor loyalty through deep understanding

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MRS Awards, Finalist, December 2015

This case study describes how the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) used research to revolutionise the way it segments and communicates with its donors.

This case study describes how the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) used research to revolutionise the way it segments and communicates with its donors.

The UNHCR works to safeguard the lives of over 40 million refugees across the world by providing basic needs and protection as well as long-term solutions.

Government contributions are not sufficient to fund its work and therefore it relies on donations from individuals to help those in greatest need.

By conducting a multi-stage, multi-mode in-depth research programme across four countries, UNHCR identified two distinct segments of donors, both of which have different relationships, communications and engagement needs.

UNHCR is now using a set of golden questions to segment its international databases in order to communicate differently with these segments, delivering both more tactical local and strategic worldwide insight.

Shell knew that to increase volume sales in the premium fuel category it needed to increase consumer preference.

So it worked with its longstanding partners LEGO and Ferrari to launch the 'Created by Us, Built by You' promotion, whereby customers could collect pieces from a collection of six exclusive Ferrari models made from LEGO bricks with their Shell fuel purchases.

The tie-in with LEGO evoked a sense of creativity and fun, the Ferrari brand portrayed aspiration, and the collectability encouraged repeat purchase, whilst the #ReadySetBuild hashtag drove awareness and desirability of the LEGO models.

By the campaign's end, consumer preference improved by a 4.5% lift, there was an uplift in purchase consideration for the promotion, and heightened brand perception in the exposed group.

16

Livon Hair Gain: Transforming a bottle into a full fledged service

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Sulagna Chanda, Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2015

This case describes Livon Hair Gain's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) campaign in India that set out to reverse the 18% decline in brand sales and retain existing consumers.

This case study explains how KappAhl, a fashion brand, developed a mobile loyalty program.

KappAhl had built up an opt-in database on all national markets, and was pushing discounts and offers via SMS and email, and a survey found that people preferred mobile as the primary platform to plastic cards and paper coupons.

It created a mobile loyalty program mostly based in an app, but with features accessible by SMS and web, and promoted it with TV and mobile ads, and through owned media.

This has been very successful with the number of members in Life & Style by KappAhl after 6 months exceeding 1 million (the population of Norway is 5,1 million).

19

Deutsche Telekom: The story of Bob & Linda

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Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2015

This case study describes how Deutsche Telekom stood out in a competitive market where little product differentiation was apparent.

This case study describes how Deutsche Telekom stood out in a competitive market where little product differentiation was apparent.

To leverage its brand strength of sharing, Deutsche Telekom settled on sharing's ability to be an active force for good rather than just a channel for distributing trivia.

Employing a content driven storytelling approach which featured Bob, a photographer who took photos of himself in a pink tutu to amuse his wife Linda who had developed breast cancer, the campaign was launched on TV and digital media followed by meetings with the media and fans and an exhibition of Bob's photos put on by Deutsche Telekom.

With a budget of 38.8 million euros, results included earned media of 5.8 million euros, 3 million YouTube views, an uplift of 2.7% in market share, a brand equity impact of +5.6% and an ROMI of 37.8%.

Additionally, the positive feedback led to the setting up of the Carey-Foundation to help combat cancer.

20

Deutsche Telekom: Move on

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Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2015

This case study describes how Deutsche Telekom regained market leadership in Germany and boosted European sales in home entertainment and mobile internet.

This case study describes how Deutsche Telekom regained market leadership in Germany and boosted European sales in home entertainment and mobile internet.

Aiming to reach the masses and increase its customer base, Deutsche Telekom built on its theme of 'Life is for sharing' by creating a Hollywood-like road movie entitled 'Move on' where people could influence the storyline.

This served the dual purpose of being entertaining whilst promoting its products via branded content with the film receiving worldwide coverage.

In Germany alone it reached 29 million contacts through earned media, equivalent to 6.2 million euros in media value, while collecting over 894,000 new subscribers, attaining an ROMI of 11.7% and regaining market share leadership over Vodafone.

21

Three: Building customer relationships

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Marketing Society UK, Excellence Awards, Winner, 2015

This case study explains how Three, the mobile network, switched from a price strategy to a brand strategy to reduce customer churn in the UK.

This case study explains how Three, the mobile network, switched from a price strategy to a brand strategy to reduce customer churn in the UK.

Three had grown rapidly, but its margins were low and its customers were price-sensitive - giving Three the worst annual churn rate in the category.

It switched to a brand strategy, targeting 'social enthusiasts' and 'pragmatic dabblers' with a 'feel at home' message that allowed them to use their phones abroad at no extra cost.

This fed into two further campaigns - a competition asking existing customers to submit their holiday brags on social media, followed by an apology for the 'holiday spam' that resulted from Three's free service abroad, targeted at non-customers.

People enjoyed the playful campaigns and Three achieved huge social media results, which translated into improved business results.

22

EDF Energy brand revitalisation

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Marketing Society UK, Excellence Awards, Grand Prix, 2015

This case study explains how EDF, the energy company, introduced a brand character and a renewed focus on being 'better' to increase its market share in the UK.

This case study demonstrates how Ubisoft Entertainment, the maker of the Original Rocksmith video game, expanded its audience from gamers to aspiring guitarists by reframing Rocksmith 2014 as learning software.

This case study demonstrates how Ubisoft Entertainment, the maker of the Original Rocksmith video game, expanded its audience from gamers to aspiring guitarists by reframing Rocksmith 2014 as learning software.

Rocksmith 2014 was facing plummeting console game sales in a crowded marketplace, especially with unlimited amount of free learning content available online.

The Take the 60-Day Challenge repositioned Rocksmith 2014 as learning software that helped aspiring musicians believe they could learn to play the guitar in 60 days.

Within months since the start of the campaign, which included a series of short-format web films and optimised searches, Ubisoft Entertainment exceeded the sales goal by 10% despite a double-digit decline in category game sales.

This case study explains how Scotiabank, a Canadian bank, used a cinema loyalty scheme to attract younger customers.

The SCENE card (in partnership with Cineplex) is Canada's only cinema loyalty scheme, allowing people to earn points on purchases which are then redeemed as cinema tickets.

SCENE launched with a stunt-based campaign: it bought out a whole cinema and then refused people's attempts to pay for the tickets, with footage used to communicate the 'feeling of free'; a year later, unsuspecting moveigoers were given hair & make-up treatments to make them feel like they were in a movie about the 'feeling of free'.